Los Angeles Area Eviction

[Maggie Jones]

Hi All!

We have an inherited tenant in a fourplex we purchased 15 months ago who was served a 60-day notice to vacate after his lease expired. He was subletting against the terms of the lease and his sublettees reached out to us for help dealing with his shady practices.  Time for him to go.

According to the 60-day notice to vacate, he should be out at the end of February. However, he's given us the distinct impression he won't leave easily.  For example, we use cozy.co for rent collection and he paid two months advance rent on his credit card along with his February rent. My husband texted and called repeatedly to find out why and arrange to pay him back but tenant hasn't responded.  My husband took a trip out to the unit last night but no one was home.

We'll be using his extra money to hire a lawyer to help us out if he isn't out of the apartment March 1.

Nevertheless, I'm super impatient and dying to know what to expect.  Does anyone have any hints as to what the next steps will be or have a ballpark idea of how long eviction will take?

Thanks so much for any insight or experience you can share!  

[Maggie Jones]

Update for anyone interested: We talked to an attorney and he had a few notes.

1. We had sent the 60-day notice to vacate by certified mail and he would have preferred we had had the tenant served.  I wouldn't have thought of that since we had a good relationship with the tenant at the time.

2. He recommended that we send the tenant a check for the overpayment amount. 

3. He was not willing to work with us for filing a lawsuit to recoup the money collected from illegally subletting although the lease specifies any sublet revenue would be forfeited to us.  We're still looking for a way to have the tenant pay for the eviction.

We're meeting with another attorney before the March 1 deadline and I'll keep this thread updated for posterity.